Partly more lovely than yesterday's, I must confess, because I was much less principled about doing flip turns throughout the workout! I did 'em on the 400 free warmup and the 2 200s at the end only, but I will say that while functionally they were possibly (mostly) worse than yesterday's, they are in the essentials coming much closer to how they should be (i.e. really coming off wall properly on back), and I even had quite a few (though they were sometimes waywardly not at the 90-degree angle) where the breathing somehow worked as I am guessing it should and I did not feel as though my lungs were going to explode. I now have confidence (which I did not before!) that if I keep on working on it, it might be a month from now and I might actually be able to do them for real...
800 warmup: 400 free, 200 IM kick-drill by 25, 200 back
Set #1: 3 x (3 x 100 free as 75 long/25 build, 2 x 50 kick [dolphin, whip; flutter, flutter; dolphin, flutter]; 4 x 25 odds slow evens 85-90% [2 x fly, 2 x breast; 2 x fly, 2 x back; 2 x back, 2 x breast])
Set #2 (truncated): 2 x 200 smooth free, 3 x 75 85% IM no free, 25 easy free
The backstroke really benefits from being in the warmup like that, it was feeling great by the end--that is my most variable stroke, I would say. Breast just isn't that great yet, I feel I have only a tenuous grasp on the timing. Fly is rather lovely but there is one optimum speed at which the stroke really works and yet I do not quite feel like I am going to die/drown, at all other speeds it is either too slow to have the right rhythm and undulation or so hard that really I am on the verge of exploding! But back sometimes feels very clumsy and at other times feels absolutely lovely, today was one of the good ones...
That is a lot of yards, in my opinion! 2950...
(Hmmm, if I had counted at the time, I would have squeezed in the extra 50 and called it 3000! It was true, the last one I did should have been 75 rather than 25 easy, only it was over time already and the little kids were waiting to get in for their team practice. The full workout was 3500. Ah well, another time...)
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3 comments:
Well, it might not be 3000, but you are certainly getting the yards in, Jenny!
And I'm sure if you keep at it, you'll get flip turns well under control!
I still haven't mastered flip turns either, and am impressed at your dedication. However, part of my rationale for not practicing them is that it seems like they don't mimic an open water swim. I know that just touching the wall and going the other direction looks amateurish while doing laps, but I've always avoided using the wall to propel myself because you can't do that in a tri open water swim. What do you think?
Yes, they definitely don't mimic an open-water swim, and indeed a lot of the refinements you need for good masters swimming are luxuries that the triathlete really need not have! I don't mind looking amateurish, but I have begun to feel that there are certain training benefits that I'll get more of/better of if I can figure out how to do them properly, so that's the incentive...
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